1961 - Spend, Spend, Spend

Vivian Asprey was born on April 3rd. 1936 in Castleford. Even though she won a scholarship to Art School, with illness in her family and six siblings there was no chance of her taking it. So at the age of 14 she found herself packing liquorice allsorts in a local factory.

In 1952 at the age of 16 she was married to Matthew Johnson. In 1961 she divorced Matthew and married Keith Howard Nicholson.

On September 30th. 1961 they were living in a council house on Kershaw Avenue with four children, newspapers at the windows for curtains, earning £9 a week between them and Vivian having to borrow shoes from her sister so she could go out to the pub for a drink. Then Keith found himself the winner of £152,000 (3 million pounds today) on the football pools.

When they arrived in London to collect the cheque they were met with a throng of reporters who asked her what she intended to do with the money and her reply of “Spend, Spend, Spend” made headlines around the world and followed her for the rest of her life.

On the 31st. October 1965, Keith died as the result of a car crash and because of their excessive spending and death duties the money had gone.

Viv was always an optimist and fighter in every sense. She had 3 more husbands, made 7 television appearances, wrote a “Play for Today” episode for television, made a record, was kicked out of Malta for fighting with a policeman and much, much more.

Sadly Vivian died on the 11th. April 2015.

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